Kyle Donahue

Prof. Bilodeau

Being a detective, and being a historian are two life paths that some would argue overlap, and some would argue are opposites. Usually when this is the case it falls somewhere in the middle.

Being a detective takes great instincts and a gut. A detective needs intuition that will lead them to solving the case. Being a historian takes patience, and a will to dig through every available resource. A historian needs knowledge that allows them to draw information they need to uncover truth.

After reading, Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey the similarities of detective and historian work are shown. Both detectives and historians need to take on a large question, or debated topic and then funnel it down into more specific information that can be used to formulate an answer. A detective must take an objective view at a case by looking at all the possible answers and not just the answer they believe to be true, just as a historian must look at every source and not just the ones that support there point of view to make their point easier to defend. Both detectives and historians reach a lot of dead ends. For example, a detective might have its prime suspect be ruled out because of an alibi even if the detective was sure he did it. Just as a historian might finally have found a document to support a claim but find this source to be unreliable. Detectives and historians both have jobs that egos must be left and the door and use no bias in determining facts from fiction.

The differences between detectives and historians tend to show in the results. Detectives must find an answer relatively quickly while historians tend to have time on their side. Another difference that may be obvious but not talked about a lot is public perception. If you asked a random person what a more appealing profession is I would bet on them saying detective. Movies are made about detectives, Sherlock Holmes, CSI, etc. but historians get the old grumpy guy reading thousand year documents, and even though Indiana Jones was sort of a historian I bet most people forget that part.

Historians and detectives are both tasked with similar goals: finding answers, and while the methods to that end goal may be different, finding those answers takes instincts, patience, guts, and knowledge on both sides.